Revitalizing A Failed Polycarbonate Disaster – Franklin Township Library, Somerset, New Jersey

This project has quite an interesting story. Kalwall’s translucent panels were originally specified for the Franklin Township Library, but to save some money, they switched to a polycarbonate product, which ultimately failed over the years in both utility costs, occupant comfort and overall performance. These issues became unmanageable, and it was decided to retrofit the failing polycarbonate with the originally specified Kalwall translucent skyroof®.

In the video below, Kalwall’s Sr. Architectural Consultant, Steve Del Guercio, who worked on the initial performance specification and design in 2005, closely followed this project through the years.  After a complete failure of the substitute polycarbonate product, Del Guercio oversaw the library’s transformation to Kalwall in 2024, and tells the story of a now, beautiful daylit library and discusses the failures of polycarbonate vs the superiority of Kalwall’s translucent daylighting.

This is a real case study on why choosing the best product specification is so important.